The Yellowcheek (Elopichthys bambusa) also known as the Kanyu, is a large species of fish native to many parts of the world.
River Monsters[]
Asian Slayer[]
The extremely rare Yellowcheek appears in the episode titled "Asian Slayer" in Season 4. It was caught by accident while Jeremy Wade was searching for the Sareng Catfish. While the legendary Sareng is rare, the exotic fish-filled lake that Jeremy was fishing had about 100 Sareng and only 8 yellowcheek. Despite being rarer, he managed to catch one, but not a Sareng.
Jeremy was frustrated that he was able to catch the extremely rare Yellowcheek, but not the more common Sareng, which was his goal. He was not able to catch the Sareng, even when he returned to India. He recalls almost feeling like he was cursed.
Description[]
It is a large cyprinid fish that is found in freshwater habitats from the Amur River in Russia, through China to the Red and Lam Rivers in Vietnam. It prefers relatively warm waters, entirely avoiding colder highlands.[1] It is considered an important food fish where it occurs, reaching up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in total length and 52.2 kg (115 lb) in weight. Although there's claim about caught 70kg (154 lbs) specimen in China, but it seem to be exaggerated.
This fish spawns in the summer, mainly in streams in places like the mid-Amur, Songhua and Ussuri basins. They mature after 6 years, and after this time they tend to live in floodplains and winter in the main rivers. They mainly consume smaller fish.
From the 1970s to 1990s, the population of yellowcheek drastically decreased, but in the 2010s the population has been observed to increase. The species appears to have disappeared entirely from the Yellow River basin. Major threats are dam construction, pollution, and overfishing. However, little is known about the overall trends of this species.
Trivia[]
Contrary to popular belief, this fish isn't a Seerfish, this fish belonged to Cyprinidae, the family of freshwater fish that includes the carps, while Chinese Seerfish belonged to Scombridae family, consisted of mackerel, tuna, and bonito.
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